A beloved sci-fi star who appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Andor has shared more of the story surrounding the infamous rewrites and reshoots for the former. The standalone movie Rogue One is directed by Gareth Edwards, but Tony Gilroy was brought on board well into the production to helm the rewrites.
Gilroy then went on to serve as creator of Andor, the highly acclaimed prequel series to Rogue One. Rogue One recounts the mission of the doomed squadron that stole the Death Star plans for the Rebellion preceding the events of the original Star Wars, while Andor is an even darker exploration of the political nature of the Rebellion against the authoritarian Empire.
Firefly alum Alan Tudyk stars in both properties as K-2SO, the wisecracking reprogrammed Imperial droid and mission partner to rebel captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). In a recent interview with The Playlist, Tudyk discussed how Rogue One was not a “drastically different” movie due to the reshoots, but that they definitely improved the final result.
Check out Tudyk’s comments below:
The Playlist: How different was “Rogue One” from its original version?
Alan Tudyk: Oh, as far as the reshoots? Yeah, I never saw the final edit before the reshoots [in the previous version].
The script was changing while we were shooting. It was bizarre, but it’s like that with many big movies and Rogue One wasn’t much different. With a lot of big movies, they get all the things in place, and it’s like, “Well, the train is leaving the station,” and the response is like, “Well, the script isn’t quite there,” and it’s like, “We’ll get there.”
It’s a little bit like jumping out of a plane and someone throws all the pieces of a parachute after you and says, “Put it together before you hit the ground, please” [laughs]. And we were doing that. I know many people noticed there were scenes in trailers that didn’t end up in the movie.
Tudyk goes on to describe how the partially-improvised scene of K-2SO slapping Cassian is an example of the “disjointed nature of things […] [working] in [their] favor,“ allowing the characters to naturally come to life. Check out additional comments from the interview below:
The Playlist: So the reshoots helped?
Alan Tudyk: Yes. Tony Gilroy’s rewrites made it more focused — trimming scenes, tightening scenes and focusing the hero’s journey of it all. There’d be a little too much shoe leather in there, or whatever, you know, trim here, trim here. And things like, “If you do one scene that says this thing real quick, we can cut this other scene and save it. It’s too long.” It was about tightening it up, but it was always the same in the big picture. We were always going to die, so it didn’t feel like a drastically different movie, but the changes gave each character their own hero moment.
There have been different reports on how much of Rogue One‘s story was changed following Gilroy becoming involved, as well as what alternate versions of the film’s ending (some where at least a few of the main characters survived) would have looked like. But Tudyk implies that there was, from a certain point on, a clear vision for the movie’s ending and desired impact.
But Tudyk also reveals the underappreciated value of many small changes adding up to an overall better movie. Gilroy reportedly spearheaded some story changes, but according to Tudyk, he primarily helped fine-tune the pacing and dialogue. Allowing the actors to do some improvisation amid the fluctuating script also helped the characters be compelling and even funny up until the tragic final act.
It seems as though everyone has known for a long time that Gilroy’s contributions to Rogue One were a saving grace, but the foundational ideas for the movie were already there. The rewrites helped it convey its ideas most effectively, which resulted in a strong entry to the franchise, with ScreenRant ranking Rogue One as the third-best Star Wars movie.
Our Take On Rogue One’s Reshoots
Andor has certainly improved Rogue One and boosted its legacy by elaborating upon its themes and getting audiences more invested in the characters in this space of Star Wars. But though it isn’t flawless, I’m still glad that Rogue One came to fruition the way it did, as it is an extremely important addition to the Star Wars canon that subsequently set the stage for Andor.
